Curated Quotations

Irving Babbitt

Quotations

  • “The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “Inasmuch as society cannot go on without discipline of some kind, men were constrained, in the absence of any other form of discipline, to turn to discipline of the military type.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “The humanities need to be defended today against the encroachments of physical science, as they once needed to be against the encroachment of theology.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “We must not, however, be like the leaders of the great romantic revolt who, in their eagerness to get rid of the husk of convention, disregarded also the humane aspiration.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “Perhaps as good a classification as any of the main types is that of the three lusts distinguished by traditional Christianity – the lust of knowledge, the lust of sensation, and the lust of power.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “For behind all imperialism is ultimately the imperialistic individual, just as behind all peace is ultimately the peaceful individual.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “The democratic idealist is prone to make light of the whole question of standards and leadership because of his unbounded faith in the plain people.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “Perhaps as good a classification as any of the main types is that of the three lusts distinguished by traditional Christianity – the lust of knowledge, the lust of sensation, and the lust of power.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “Since every man desires happiness, it is evidently no small matter whether he conceives of happiness in terms of work or of enjoyment.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “A person who has sympathy for mankind in the lump, faith in its future progress, and desire to serve the great cause of this progress, should be called not a humanist, but a humanitarian, and his creed may be designated as humanitarianism.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “The democratic idealist is prone to make light of the whole question of standards and leadership because of his unbounded faith in the plain people.” -Irving Babbitt

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  • “To harmonize the One with the Many, this is indeed a difficult adjustment, perhaps the most difficult of all, and so important, withal, that nations have perished from their failure to achieve it.” -Irving Babbitt

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